Every reporter Zhu Chengxiang, every editor Chen Junjie

Recently, China's four major wafer foundries have disclosed their 2023 results one after another. SMIC (688981)FreetoplayplaytoearnnftgamesSH, 41.18 yuan, market value 327.467 billion yuan), Huahong company (688347.SH, 28.63 yuan, market value 49.15 billion yuan), Jinghe integration (688249.SH, 13.30 yuan, market value 26.68 billion yuan), core integration (688469.SH, 4.60 yuan, market capitalization 32.41 billion yuan) revenue of 45.25 billion yuan, 16.232 billion yuan, 7.244 billion yuan and 5.324 billion yuan, respectively Revenue growth was-8.6%,-3.3%,-27.93% and 15.59%, respectively.

It can be seen that among the four major wafer generation factories, only core integration revenue keeps growing. From the percentage of revenue, core integration is mainly power devices, the company said: "New energy vehicles, landscape energy storage and other subdivision track demand for power devices continues to maintain high growth."

However, core integration is the only loss-making manufacturer among the four major wafer foundries. In 2023, the net profits of SMIC, Huahong, Jinghe Integration and Core Integration were 4.823 billion yuan, 1.936 billion yuan, 212 million yuan and-1.958 billion yuan respectively.FreetoplayplaytoearnnftgamesThe net profit of the top three decreased by 60.3%, 35.64% and 93.05% respectively compared with the same period last year.

SMIC and Huahong are highly comprehensive.

From the perspective of revenue scale, SMIC and Huahong are all over 10 billion yuan, with a large volume. According to their respective 2023 results, SMIC and Huahong have a monthly production capacity of 806000 and 391000 respectively (about 8 inches, or 8 inches equals 12 inch wafers multiplied by 2.25).

By the end of 2023, two 8-inch silicon-based wafer production lines have been built, with a total output of 170000 wafers per month. While Crystal Integration did not disclose wafer production capacity in its annual report, it said in its capacity reservation that as of December 31, 2023, customers were scheduled to produce 810000 wafers, or 67500 wafers per month, in 2024. Since the crystal integration is a 12-inch production line, the 8-inch production capacity is about 151900 pieces per month.

In terms of product structure, SMIC said that for many years, the company has been focused on the development of integrated circuit process technology, providing global customers with 8-inch and 12-inch wafer foundry and technical services for different process technology platforms. It has the mass production capacity of many technology platforms, such as logic circuit, power supply / analog, high voltage drive, embedded non-volatile storage, non-volatile storage, mixed signal / radio frequency, image sensor and so on. can provide customers with smart phones, computers and tablets, consumer electronics, interconnection and wearable, industrial and automotive and other areas of integrated circuit wafer foundry and supporting services. Through long-term cooperation with well-known customers at home and abroad, we have formed an obvious brand effect and gained good industry recognition.

It can be seen that SMIC is involved in a number of sub-areas and can flexibly switch capacity between platforms.

Compared with SMIC, Huahong is also involved in many sub-areas, but it obviously tends to the fields of power semiconductors and storage. In 2023, Huahong power devices accounted for the highest proportion of revenue, reaching 39.50%, while embedded non-volatile memory and independent non-volatile memory accounted for 30.69% and 5.11%, respectively. Power semiconductors and storage account for 75.30% of the total.

It is worth mentioning that although SMIC is more comprehensive, it does not involve power semiconductors. In other words, Huahong accounts for the highest proportion of power semiconductor business, but SMIC is not involved.

Perhaps this has something to do with SMIC's international investment core integration. The securities before SMIC were referred to as "SMIC", and SMIC International Holdings Co., Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of SMIC, holds a 14.10% stake in SMIC, making it its second largest shareholder.

The core integrated products are mainly IGBT (insulated gate bipolar transistor) and MOSFET (metal-oxygen half-field effect transistor), both of which are power semiconductors. In short, SMIC's missing products are the strengths of core integration.

Crystal and core combination "specialize" in a single field.

SMIC and Huahong are integrated wafer foundry manufacturers, while wafer integration and core integration still focus on a single field at present. Crystal integration specialized DDIC (panel display driver chip), core integrated specialized power devices.

According to the classification of application products, the main products of crystal integration, such as DDIC, CIS (CMOS image sensor), PMIC (power management chip) and MCU (micro control unit), account for 84.79%, 6.03%, 6.04% and 1.71% of the main business income, respectively. It can be seen that most of the revenue of Crystal Integration in 2023 is contributed by DDIC.

However, Crystal Integration is also actively expanding other businesses, such as CIS. On April 9, Jinghe Integrated announced that its 55nm single chip, high-pixel backlit image sensor (BSI) was ready for mass production. It is reported that the overall pixel level of the chip has been raised to 50 million.

Crystal integration products focus on DDIC, while core integration focuses on power semiconductors. It is reported that in the two 8-inch silicon-based wafer production lines, the monthly production capacity of IGBT products is 80, 000, MOSFET is 70, 000, MEMS (micro-electromechanical system) is 15000, and HVIC (high-voltage insulator coating, 8-inch) is 5000. The average annual capacity utilization of the company's 8-inch wafer foundry products is more than 80%.

It can be seen that the main production capacity of core integration is IGBT and MOSFET, which are two major power semiconductors. At present, power semiconductors are moving from silicon-based MOSFET and IGBT to SIC (silicon carbide) system.

With regard to silicon carbide, Core Integration said that since 2021, the company has invested in the research and development of SiC MOSFET chip and module packaging technology and production capacity construction, and has completed three rounds of technical iterations in only two years. The SiC MOSFET devices and modules used in the vehicle main drive inverter will be mass produced in 2023. By December 2023, the company's 6-inch SiC MOSFET production line has achieved a monthly output of more than 5000 pieces, and the company plans to build the first 8-inch SiC MOSFET experimental line in China in 2024.

Cover photo: photo by Liu Guomei, Daily Economic News